


Green-Eyed Monster

by Lyrstzha



Category: Angel: the Series, Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Crossover, Flash Fic, Gen, Gods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-02-03
Updated: 2008-02-03
Packaged: 2017-10-05 15:50:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyrstzha/pseuds/Lyrstzha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are lots of reasons for the Border Guardians to talk to each other. Even envy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Green-Eyed Monster

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Violethamster](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Violethamster).



There are many powers and principalities in the vastness of the universe. Some of them are beautiful or terrible beyond human comprehension—sometimes both at once—and some are as small and insubstantial as the twine of smoke from a snuffed candle. They are as varied and individual as the stars that sail the endless black, and most of them have no name in any mortal tongue that ever was or ever will be.

In the fashion of so many creatures, immortal or otherwise, these beings often arrange themselves in factions or alignments to suit their natures and functions. A number of them would argue that this categorization is not their own choice, but simply the logic of destiny. Possibly this is true, though destiny seems disinclined to comment upon the subject.

In any case, one of these many classifications is those who guard the Ways Between. There are many Ways, be they the paths connecting dimensions, realities, universes, or states of being; all such passages have guardians. These sentinels are charged with the usually thankless and often tedious task of warding the gateways to their respective Ways Between and supervising those few individuals who are permitted to walk these Ways. As with any manner of border guard, they often relieve the monotony by conversing with their neighboring—or even opposing—guardians, for they have rather more in common with each other than they do with anyone or anything else. They spend many an age musing amongst themselves over the profound and fascinating question of their purpose in the structure of reality, for instance.

And sometimes they come together for far more petty reasons.

"Angel is a warrior, a veteran of many battles. He holds a demon prisoned inside his soul, and has more blood and pain to his credit than many a monster. But he twitches at the sight of me. He has dark dreams of me in the deep watches of the night." Mesektet, known also as Keeper of the White Room, member of the legendary Ra-tet, Liaison to the Senior Partners of Wolfram and Hart, and sometimes simply as The Red Girl, could perhaps be said to have a trace of defensiveness beneath her haughty tone. For all that she is powerful and ageless, she is still not her own master, as her companion is. Aside from teaching her to be very careful about what she signs in blood, this makes her slightly touchy around her peers sometimes.

The being known to mortals simply as Test Card Girl (and only by those unfortunate enough to meet her), or to her colleagues as She Who Holds Dominion over the Unmoored Earthbound, looks down her dainty nose at Mesektet. "It is nothing to scare a warrior; they only fight if they have something they fear to lose. All warriors are terrified of the prospect of their failure to defend that which they hold dear enough to die for. It is a much more impressive achievement to strike horror into the heart of someone with nothing to lose." She does not even bother to add _which, of course, is exactly what I have managed with my own charge_; the disdainful implication is clear enough.

Mesektet returns a delicate, scornful huff. "I am sure that is a great comfort to you in the long hours you must spend in the cramped squalor of your ward's apartment." She looks nonchalantly down at her hand to allow Test Card Girl a moment to seethe, whimsically raising a tracery of whorls across her fingertips in a simulacrum of human fingerprints before she idly allows the patterns to submerge back into the skin she wears. She finally adds, ostentatiously offhandedly, "I'm quite pleased with my domain. It's even more comfortable than I was promised." She offers Test Card Girl a sharp-edged smile.

There is a long moment of utter silence, during which it is no figure of speech to say that even time stands cautiously still. The more prudent among the physical laws creep surreptitiously away to the farthest corners of reality.

And then, perhaps because she has been spending so much time of late with a pouting, obstreperous human, Test Card Girl declares flatly, with a contemptuous toss of her sleek head, "Oh yeah? I have a clown, bitch. Top _that_." She brandishes said clown assertively for emphasis.

Mesektet narrows her eyes at the ghastly doll. "I could have a clown if I wanted one," she fumes petulantly. "_I_ do not need props to make myself appear more uncanny."

Test Card Girl simply smirks back at her smugly. "Whatever gets you through the White," she says in a tone which drips with serene complaisance.

In another facet of reality, a man named Sam Tyler is gratified—if surprised—to spend an undisturbed night in peaceful slumber. In yet another aspect, a vampire called Angel is troubled—for no reason he can imagine—by distressing and somewhat bewildering dreams of a fearsome creature which looks like a little girl and keeps insisting that she would be no more terrifying if she had a clown.

Though he disagrees heartily on this point, Angel has enough sense not to contradict her.


End file.
